TV News LIES

Zohran Mamdani, the leading candidate to be the next mayor of New York, stepped into the lion’s den on Wednesday when he sat for an interview with Fox News, the rightwing news organization that has spent weeks demonizing him and his democratic socialist goals.

Speaking to host Martha MacCallum, Mamdani was asked about funding for his proposals, which include freezing increases on rent-stabilized apartments, providing free buses and offering free childcare – and whether other services would be cut to achieve those goals.

“I don’t think we have to cut,” Mamdani said. “I’ve spoken about raising taxes on the wealthiest. And, frankly, this is an issue that we have here in New York City, and, frankly, even across this country.”

Mamdani said he had spoken to people who voted for Donald Trump in New York who told him it was the “cost of living” that “drove them to vote” for the president.

Mamdani said that, despite that, “what we’re seeing time and time again is we’re more focused on the question of billionaires and the most profitable corporations than we are on people who can’t even afford to make ends meet in the city”.

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US Capitol police are reportedly investigating after a US flag bearing a swastika was discovered inside the office of Republican House member Dave Taylor of Ohio.

The image, obtained by Politico, shows a modified flag featuring red and white stripes arranged in the form of a swastika – which is virtually synonymous with the Nazis’ genocidal regime. The flag was displayed on what appears to be a cubicle wall behind Angelo Elia, one of Taylor’s staff members, during a virtual meeting.

Other items pinned nearby include a pocket constitution and a congressional calendar. It remains unclear whether Elia had any connection to the display.

“I am aware of an image that appears to depict a vile and deeply inappropriate symbol near an employee in my office,” Taylor said in a statement to the Cincinnati Enquirer.

“The content of that image does not reflect the values or standards of this office, my staff, or myself, and I condemn it in the strongest terms. Upon learning of this matter, I immediately directed a thorough investigation alongside Capitol Police, which remains ongoing. No further comment will be provided until it has been completed.”

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Brown University has become the second higher-education institution to turn down an invitation from Donald Trump to sign onto his administration’s 10-page college compact that would overhaul university policies in return for preferential access to federal funding.

The “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” is a proposed agreement that would impose restrictions on diversity, equity and inclusion programs and limits on international student enrollment.

Brown’s move comes after the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) refused to sign it last week.

In a letter sent on Wednesday to administration officials, Brown’s president, Christina Paxson, said she was concerned that the compact “by its nature and by various provisions would restrict academic freedom and undermine the autonomy of Brown’s governance”.

She added: “Additionally, a fundamental part of academic excellence is awarding research funding on the merits of the research being proposed. The cover letter describing the compact contemplates funding research on criteria other than the soundness and likely impact of research, which would ultimately damage the health and prosperity of Americans.”

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Jack Smith, the special counsel who brought two criminal cases against Donald Trump, spoke out against the Trump administration in a rare interview posted Tuesday.

Smith, who resigned from the Justice Department in January shortly before Trump returned to office as president, warned that attacks on public servants would have an “incalculable” cost on the country.

“I think the attacks on public servants, particularly nonpartisan public servants — I think it has a cost for our country that is incalculable, and I think that we — it’s hard to communicate to folks how much that is going to cost us,” Smith said in an interview last week with former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissman at University College London Faculty of Laws, where Weissman is a visiting professor.

Reached for comment on Smith's interview, the White House said, “The Trump Administration will continue to deliver the truth to the American people while restoring integrity and accountability to our justice system.” The Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

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President Donald Trump is renewing his threats against New York City, suggesting he'll withhold federal funds and deploy the National Guard, as he did in other major cities, if Zohran Mamdani is elected mayor.

Speaking Tuesday at the White House, Trump hurled insults at the Democratic candidate anew.

"We have a Communist, 33 years old, doesn't know a thing, probably never worked a day in his life, and he sort of caught on. I'm not going to send a lot of money to New Yorkhttps://tse3.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIF.i1lDsFxaLYUz%2fHU8dP3MqA&pid=Api&h=220&P=0," Trump said. "We're not going to ruin one of our great cities, because we'll make that great. We will clean up the crime in about 30 days."

"It took 12 days to do Washington, DC, so New York is bigger, and Chicago, we've already made a lot of progress despite fighting from the government. All of these cities, we want to clean them up," he added. "We don't like that opposition. But if somebody is going to be a communist mayor of New York. It's a fluke if he gets in."

The comments add to an arsenal Trump has wielded against the city. A day after Eric Adams dropped his reelection bid, Trump called Mamdani "one of the best things to ever happen to our great Republican party," and threatened to withhold federal funds should he win. He called him a Communist, as he did again Tuesday.

Mamdani had no immediate comment on the latest jab. He appeared at an event with Gov. Kathy Hochul Tuesday night, their first joint appearance since she endorsed him a month ago, noting some philosophical differences. Hochul has pledged to have Mamdani's back, as well as New York's state, when it comes to Trump.

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In a stunning departure for an administration that came to power vowing to stop social-media censorship, Donald Trump’s state department announced on Tuesday that it had revoked the visas of six foreign nationals who posted critical comments on social media about Charlie Kirk, in the wake of the conservative activist’s murder.

“The United States has no obligation to host foreigners who wish death on Americans,” the US state department said in a statement posted on X. “The State Department continues to identify visa holders who celebrated the heinous assassination of Charlie Kirk.”

The state department then listed six “examples of aliens who are no longer welcome in the U.S.” in a thread on the social media platform owned by Elon Musk, the Trump donor who called himself “a free speech absolutist” before buying the site formerly known as Twitter.

The thread included screenshots and quotes from people identified as foreign nationals of Argentina, Brazil, Germany, Mexico, Paraguay and South Africa.y, Mexico, Paraguay and South Africa.

None of the individuals was identified by name, but the screenshots made it possible to trace the identities of two people, including one who had been singled out for abuse by conservatives on X.

None of the individuals was identified by name, but the screenshots made it possible to trace the identities of two people, including one who had been singled out for abuse by conservatives on X.

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